


What a Laugh

by DaFlangstLairde



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (attempted and failed), Alphys Needs a Hug (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Dusttale (Undertale), Anxious Alphys (Undertale), Asylum, Character Study, Death Threats, Dusttale Sans (Undertale), Gen, Hallucinations, Hearing Voices, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Insanity, Insults, Medication, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mental Institutions, Mentioned Papyrus (Undertale) - Freeform, Mentioned Toriel (Undertale) - Freeform, Monster Dust (Undertale), Past Character Death, Sans (Undertale) Has Issues, Sans (Undertale) Remembers Resets, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Self-Worth Issues, i mean that's part of dusttale right?, straight jacket
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26663965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaFlangstLairde/pseuds/DaFlangstLairde
Summary: This white room was so... deprived. Sans hated it. But it was better he's here.Or: Alphys checks up on the mentally-troubled skeleton. They have a chat.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	What a Laugh

**Author's Note:**

> HEY! Be careful with reading this!  
> This IS Dusttale, so there are references to death and dust; Mental issues; Self-hatred; Psychotic symptoms; Sans is very hurtful towards Alphys in one paragraph; Attempted (and failed) self-harm
> 
> Everything oddly written ("typo", change of view, etc) is purposeful. This is a character who has troubles with perceiving reality, after all

Sans twisted back his neck, pushing against the stuffed wall. It felt so UNCOMFORTABLE. So little sensation. Depressing! Only pressing his bones felt like anything, really.

“S-Sans? I- Oh, be c-ca-careful!” Alphys squeaked, walking in. He inched his head to stare at her, his constant grin stretching. He straightened his back again. He cackled. 

“still so worried about mee,” Sans drew, calmly walking over to the glass wall that separated them. Alphys, by instinct, took a step back. Fear she fear good she should stay back danger. 

“I-I- Here’s, uh, your food,” Alphys said awkwardly. Sans bonked his face against the glass, leaning against it. He pinned her with a stare, and her hands shook. 

If he shattered this wall right now, how many pieces would rain now? Raining down, raining down, like in Waterfall, hah, and then dust would rain, too, a mockery of blood, he has SEEN blood and it definitely isn’t whatever Monsters have, he has seen blood, he has seen blood-

Alphys slid the tray with food through a secured hatch. “Your medication is in the plastic cup, a-as always, you, you just swallow it with some w-water,” she explained as she always does. So repetitive. So repetitive. He hated it. He hated it. 

We hate her. We hate Alphys. Right? Sans pulled back from the glass, only to slam his forehead into it again. It made his head ring, and quieted down his head. 

Alphys jumped a foot in the air with a yell. Hhah, like a squeaky toy. Sans snorted, which was a weirdly nasal sound for somebody with nothing actually ‘nasal’. 

Alphys took a moment to collect herself. She pulled out a clipboard. “W-w-we-well, I, uh, gotta a-ask you the usual q-q-questions,” she stammered. Would he bring her to a panic attack today? That wasn’t nice. Alphys was too good, she didn’t deserve it. 

“How a-are you?” Alphys asked. Sans thought about it. How was he? How was he WHAT? Alive? He wondered. How ARE you alive? “i went through a lot to get this powerful, i’d hope i AM well alive,” he replied. 

Alphys pressed her lips into a thin line. “O-okay,” she said, writing something down. “That- That’s good, I-I th-think,” she muttered, and Sans growled at her. “quit it,” he demanded. She looked at him again, confused.

“stop repeating, stop repeating, stop repeated, stop-” he repeated, the words slowly turning into self-muttering. The words felt familiar in his mouth. Hypocrite. 

“Sorry,” Alphys said slowly, careful to not stutter as much. “How was your day?” she asked next. 

Sans slid along the glass, sitting down. “boring. empty. i hate it. so… dry. like dust,” he said. He grinned at himself. He began giggling. Dust. Good one. Awful one! But you’re smiling. And I hate it! 

“We can try b-bringing you some books again,” Alphys offered. “B-but you’ll have to b-be careful with them, o-okay? Books are a bit hard to g-get from the dumps,” she explained. Sans blinked. Books… he could read out loud. That way, his brother wouldn’t be bored when visiting. Yes! Great idea. He nodded at Alphys, and she smiled at him, scribbling down some more things.

“H-have you seen your b-bro-brother recently?” Alphys asked next. Sans’ eyes went out. There’s that weight on his shoulders again. He was clutching Sans’ shoulders again. Sans rolled them. It’d be easier if the stupid white jacket was off him - Sans could remove his hands from his shoulders then.

“Sans?” Alphys called out. He looked at her and shook his head. “is he mad at me? i think he’s mad at me. i haven’t seen him for a long time,” Sans said. He realized he was sad. Actually, his face felt wet. Of course he was sad. He hadn’t seen his brother come by for a day or two now! And he had promised to come every day!

Alphys sighed. She was hiding it, but Sans saw. She was relieved. She hates me, doesn’t she? She hates my brother. Why would she?! I’m great! 

Sans’ eyes went out. He dragged himself up. “U-um, so, your recovery i-is-” Alphys began, checking her notes. Sans slammed himself into the glass, and she jumped with a yell, again, because of course she did. 

“leave.” Sans said and Alphys winced. “W-w-why-?” She asked, and Sans kicked the glass. “you don’t deserve to live. you were supposed to be dead. It should’ve been me who lived!” he said, his voice going into a higher pitch towards the end. 

Alphys was clutching the clipboard, and she swallowed nervously. She curled her tail around herself. Sans wondered why she was still here. “it’s ‘cause you’re useful to the plot, isn’t it? bitch. it should’ve been you instead of them. would’ve been a change-up, too, ‘cause when it was the kid’s runs, it was always you who killed yourself, heh,” Sans pushed. 

He saw tears in her eyes. She was trying to hold them back. With shaking feet, she slowly walked out of the room. Sans’ empty eye sockets stalked her towards the exit. 

~

Maybe if you leaned down a bit further, you could bite through the jacket. “i’ve already tried that, stop suggesting it,” Sans said into the empty room. He let his head flop back, leaning it against the soft padding. At least sitting down was more comfy on the padding than without it.

If my brother hasn’t come to us, then we should go to HIM. “they won’t let me. which is good. i shouldn’t come close to others if you keep giving me your type of suggestions,” Sans snorted. “plus, Papyrus will come. he’s too great to just ditch me.” he said, quite certain in himself. 

...but what if Papyrus is too great for Sans? What if he realized how much better he is than Sans? What if he never comes around? What if he’s gone? He can’t be gone. He can’t be. Sans made sure of it! His breathing was getting erratic. 

Sans had made sure the kid couldn’t touch his brother. Couldn’t do anything to him. Sans KNEW the kid hadn’t killed Papyrus. So there wasn’t a way for Papyrus to be gone! 

Then why wasn’t he HERE?! 

Papyrus was just too good for Sans. He always was. Sans had to suffer. Now. To repay for his actions.

Sans slammed his head back against the wall. It did nothing. Stupid padding. 

Sans stood up and turned towards the glass wall. He pressed down his feet, then ran straight towards the thick glass. 

He slammed into the wall. But, as always, it only bounced him off with a loud sound, making him stumble back. Ugh, magic. The wall was infused with magic, because of course it was. This was supposed to be a “safe” room. 

Sans grunted and walked back to one of the padded walls, sliding to sit down. Then he flopped on his side, now laying on the floor. He curled his knees into himself. 

He was SO bored. There was so little goddamn SENSATION in this room. He hated it. So quiet. So quiet. Deadly quiet. His face was wet. 

Deadly quiet. Heh. Hah! Sans began to chuckle, which progressed into laughter. Deadly quiet! Hah! 

...That’s one of your worst jokes. 

Sans laughed at that even more. It wasn’t quiet anymore, at least. 

…

Soon, he was bored again. Sans wondered when Alphys would bring around those books she spoke of. She was so nice! Sans didn’t understand why we said those hurtful things to her. She was nothing but nice to him. And he kept hurting her like that…

Sans hurt everybody. He was horrible. He deserved to rot in this empty room. He had wanted to make it up by saving everybody from the kid. But no, he had ruined THAT, too. 

Ruined. Sans wondered how Toriel is doing. She’s probably upset the kid is dead. She had wanted Sans to protect the kid. But he had failed there, too. 

“why did the skeleton lose the first fight?” Sans said to her. The room was quiet - she must be waiting for him to continue the joke. Sans grinned. “‘cause he had no muscle,” he said, grinning further. 

...still quiet. Sans’s grin faltered, but didn’t disappear, as it never does. He stared forward. Was Toriel upset at him too? 

...Sans wouldn’t blame her. He deserved to be alone.

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT!
> 
> This is NOT an accurate representation of neither a mental institution, nor of a mentally troubled individual! PLEASE do not take this as reality.  
> I wrote this because I wanted to write a character spiraling. I was NOT striving for any sort of accuracy. 
> 
> Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed reading! Please comment!


End file.
